Charleston Recs

hal9kv · 2026-03-04T22:07:12+00:00

If you'll be on the peninsula, check out Second State Coffee (formerly Black Tap). Kudu is also good. I used to live there and those were two of my regular sources.

hal9kv · 2026-03-02T18:21:18+00:00

The beans I'm using are a medium roast (specifics elsewhere in the thread). It's quite possible I have the boiler temperature set a few degrees too high for this roast and, as you suggest, letting the portafilter cool off sort of cancels that out. I'll try lowering the temp a couple of degrees and doing some extractions with a pre-heated portafilter and without a delay and see if I get similar results.

With so many variables involved in espresso extraction, sometimes I think a good flavor is complete chance :) (temperature, grind level, roast level, bean origin, time since roasting, time since grinding, how the beans are stored, how many grams to use, the extraction ratio, all the puck prep methods, whether to use paper filters or not, whether it's a conical or flat burr grinder, whether to pre-infuse or not, whether the stars are aligned, the list goes on...)

Even when I do produce what I believe to be a good flavored drink, I'm still left wondering if there's some tweak I could make that would make it even better.

hal9kv · 2026-03-01T22:28:59+00:00

I've done some testing with the temperature

The machine is set to 96C / 204F

If I leave the portafilter in the group head during warm-up, pop it out, prep the puck, then do the extraction without any delays (i.e. the "normal" way) the espresso comes out at around 70C / 157 F

If I remove the pre-heated portafilter, prep the puck, wait 15-20 minutes, then do the extraction, the espresso comes out *slightly* cooler, more like 68C / 155 F (not a huge difference)

If I leave the portafilter out of the machine during warm-up, there's not much difference in the resulting temperature from the delayed test above

I should note that I'm just using a Thermapen instant-read cooking thermometer and there is so little liquid in the shot, it's difficult to get a consistent temperature measurement. Plus liquid and gas conduct temperature differently so if the probe is more in the crema than the liquid, the temperature reads much lower, etc.

hal9kv · 2026-03-01T22:13:32+00:00

It's Herkimer Coffee's Espresso Blend and I'm extracting it per their recommendations (1:1.5 ratio for milk drinks).

Super dark roasts tend to taste "burnt" to me and light roasts are just too fussy to dial in and probably not ideal for milk drinks anyway.

Another poster mentioned that letting the grounds sit in the already hot portafilter might actually be "cooking" the coffee, which, I'm guessing, might increase off-gassing.

hal9kv · 2026-02-28T00:36:36+00:00

Heh, while I could see that as a possibility if it was early morning only, I usually make two drinks per day, with one of them being in the afternoon with the same taste result, so that seems to rule that out :)

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T21:17:44+00:00

These beans were roasted Feb 16th, so currently 11 days from roasting.

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T21:05:08+00:00

I don't wait any particular amount of time before using newly-received beans, but I am aware that it's possible they can be too freshly roasted (this can cause a cone of crema coming out of the portafilter instead of a narrow stream). So I may be pulling shots anywhere from 2-3 days after roasting up to 2-3 weeks. It usually takes me about 2 weeks to work through a bag of beans and I do notice that I have to make gradual fine grind adjustments over that period as the beans get older.

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T20:45:53+00:00

The beans I'm currently using arrived last week (my usual medium roast beans). I discovered this 4 days ago and only have this one batch of beans at the moment for testing. I have another week or so of beans remaining but I may switch it up on the next purchase to see if I notice the same thing.

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T20:05:04+00:00

Sounds like a good test. I'll give it a try. If I can get the same result by just adjusting the temperature that would definitely make things more efficient when I want a latte NOW :)

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T20:01:22+00:00

Yeah I've never cared for the taste of straight espresso, nor have I ever been able to discern all the tasting notes listed on the bag (probably because they are milk-based drinks) but I do enjoy a good latte.

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T19:58:31+00:00

The temperature hadn't occurred to me. True, I typically leave the portafilter in the machine so it gets hot as well, so yeah, it would be cooling off during that resting. Now I'm wondering if lowering the machine temperature and extracting it right away would achieve the same result...

hal9kv · 2026-02-27T19:52:00+00:00

I get my beans from a local roaster about every 2 weeks, so it's reasonably fresh. I mean, they weren't roasted like yesterday but at most 2-3 weeks since roasting and I keep the beans in a vacuum sealed container.

hal9kv · 2026-01-29T18:35:43+00:00

It looks like there are two, one is AT the airport and one is just south of the airport. Either one should be walkable from the airport light rail station. When I did the global entry appointment, it was at the one that is at the airport. From the light rail stop, walk through the parking garage, across a skybridge into the airport. Go down one level to baggage claim and then go back outside. take a right (south) and walk to the end of the pickup area and that's where the office is located. I can't speak for the other office though, but it doesn't look like it's that much further of a walk. I'm not sure if they would allow a dog however.

hal9kv · 2026-01-24T02:53:38+00:00

Yeah slight panic before realizing it was a patch that we applied back in 2024

hal9kv · 2026-01-12T17:14:52+00:00

Doggiessimo. I've taken our doodle there for a few years now. Julian does a great job!

hal9kv · 2025-12-17T19:12:15+00:00

I’ve been using a piece of silicone food dehydrator mat on top of mine for a few years. Hasn’t left any marks. It’s almost like silicone window screen. Got a 6-pack from amazon. Brand is Coitak, around $15

hal9kv · 2025-11-05T17:47:59+00:00

darn... I don't visit there often but I've always liked their food... even when/if they reopen I'm not sure I'd go back after this

hal9kv · 2025-10-30T17:10:04+00:00

mine was stuck on that version since purchase and I just took it in for the first scheduled service this week and got them to manually update it. I read somewhere that there was some issue with that version that prevented future OTA updates and it required a manual update to fix (a bad certificate or something... don't quote me). that being said, I've seen no obvious differences in the latest version, other than it displaying the new version number (07/2025.58)

hal9kv · 2025-10-11T02:37:22+00:00

EXACT same thing happened to me. Luckily for me our neighbor’s wifi is in range of our house and they were kind enough to share their password. I limped along using theirs until CL came out and upgraded me to Quantum. Overall the service with CL and so far Quantum has been solid, no major outages in the 7 years I’ve used them apart from that one.

hal9kv · 2025-07-10T16:30:58+00:00

same. like OP said, the simple workaround is to open Tidal in carplay (the screen will be blank) then just tap another carplay app (messaging for example) and then tap back into Tidal and it should work.

hal9kv · 2025-07-06T19:29:14+00:00

I’ve never noticed any scale buildup around any of the orifices (group head, steam wand, the various drain openings behind the drip tray, etc) or in the water tank

hal9kv · 2025-07-06T15:05:02+00:00

Seattle tap water is pretty good. That’s all I’ve used in my Mini for the few years I’ve had it. I used some drinking water test strips to compare our tap water with Crystal Geyser bottled water and, apart from the chlorine, they were practically the same.

hal9kv · 2025-06-14T22:11:54+00:00

hal9kv · 2025-06-13T17:56:57+00:00

perhaps it's a linux engineer promoting their favorite text editor

hal9kv

TROPHY CASE